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my legs against
Smoke, giving him the signal that it was time to go. Slowly, we
crossed the remainder of the clearing. A strong, nauseating scent
of something rotting drifted across my nostrils.
    Smoke felt uneasy, too, and he started
to whinny a little. His ears swiveled in all directions, trying to
detect some minuscule sound. I could sense his muscles tense and
his movements become jerky. I wished he were more quiet, but
realized there was nothing he could do about his breathing, or the
occasional swishing sound that his legs made as they moved through
the grass.
    I felt like I needed to hear
something—something I was missing…even something, perhaps, out of
place. Straining my ears, I looked around, trying to detect what it
was. I pulled the crossbow closer. Despite the cold, my palms were
sweating.
Ridiculous
, I thought.
I’m just scaring
myself.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was
out there. It felt like having all the pieces to a puzzle, but
unable to put them together.
Why do I think
that?
     
***
     
    It all clicked in my head at once: the
dead silence of the night, nothing moving—as if all the animals and
birds were holding their breath, waiting for a predator to make its
move. With a start, the puzzle pieces fell into place. I realized
that the swishing sound wasn’t only coming from Smoke—there
was
something else. Moreover, I could hear breathing: a
very quiet, occasional rasp that had also been masked by
Smoke.
    Before I could finish kicking him in
the flanks, Smoke was off like a ball shot out of a cannon, as if
he were saying, “What took you so long?”
    We flew across the remainder of the
clearing. Straining my eyes, I looked back, trying to see what it
could be. Bear? No, bears usually don’t stalk humans. A mountain
lion? Probably not, we were too big for one of those. Possibly
wolves, but that didn’t feel right, either. Whatever it was, it
seemed like it was just waiting there. A clearing would be a good
place to wait for prey, at least from a human standpoint; you could
see farther than you could through the trees.
    Just before we sailed back into the
dark forest, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of
my eye, not too far from where we had stood. A gigantic, black
figure rose out of the mist. It appeared to be almost as tall as me
sitting on top of Smoke, just standing there motionless, watching
us flee. The moon reflected off its eyes, making them appear
ghostly silver in the light. The silvery shine of an animal’s eye
at night was a sight that always disturbed me a little, no matter
the animal. However, this was completely different—the beast looked
like that of a demon rising from the smokes of Hell. However, what
I feared more than the eerie scene before me was the void I saw in
that brief glimpse into its eyes. Whatever the monster was, it had
no soul.

Chapter Four: Monsters

    A shiver ran
down my spine that extended through my arms and legs. Tearing my
eyes from the creature, I urged Smoke to go faster, hoping that
whatever it was, it could be outrun.
    Almost immediately, upon leaving the
clearing, it began to warm. I couldn’t tell if it was really
getting warmer or just the jubilant feeling of escaping the
wretched beast.
    Poor Smoke
, I thought. He had
already been pushed beyond what he should. Still, I felt sure he
preferred this to facing whatever it was in the cold
mist.
    We traveled on, not daring to stop for
some time. Eventually, the faint sound of a bubbling stream reached
my ears, and I decided I shouldn’t push my luck, or Smoke’s, any
further. We slowed to a walk. Reaching the stream, I dismounted and
took out some dried apples to eat, while making Smoke cool down
before I let him drink.
    Though we both needed a break, stopping
here for long could be perilous. It would be too easy for someone
(or something) to mask their approach in the sound of the stream.
What’s more, I still didn’t feel far enough away from the